I lurked on the RUSA CODES email discussion entitled: "Navigating the RA High-Wire Act: Practicing RA When You Don't Read Widely." I had hoped to participate, but due to a staff meeting and a few commitments with the kids at school, I really only had time to lurk.
It was a great discussion, and I was humbled by the nice things people said about this blog. So those of you who are new to this blog because of the discussion, welcome.
What basically happened in this discussion for two days was that members of the RUSA CODES committee, posed questions and moderated a discussion that began with how to keep up with all of the reading options that are out there. Of course we can't read it all, but we have to help everyone.
Ironically, during the discussion on email, we had a staff meeting where we went through lists of the most popular authors in all the major genres and assessed or strengths and weaknesses as individuals and as a team. You will be hearing more about these results in the coming months as we complete some mini genre studies.
But back to the CODES Conversation. From the initial set of questions, new threads emerged. I highly suggest you check out the archive as given to us by the moderator:
The conversation will be archived here: http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/codes-convos/2013-04/ (click on the 2013/04 box highlighted in blue)
If you have trouble accessing it go to the bottom of this page and join the mailing list, or email me: zombiegrl75[at]gmail[dot]com. Also you may want to join so you are enrolled in the next discussion coming in August.
Before I go and let you see the discussion for yourself, a note on participating in mass email conversations in general. They can be overwhelming. I had hundreds of messages to go through during the 2 days. However, I sent them to the gmail address listed above. This is my web communication email address. It gets lighter traffic than my personal email and my work email. In this way I could ignore the messages as they piled up when I was busy, and take the time to go through them when I more had time. Also, gmail can presort the messages into a nice folder for you.
A few people expressed concern over the number of emails they received. But beyond using the technology to your advantage to help manage the influx of mail in your inbox, I also suggest you look at it a different way. This is a 2 day barrage of emails that no one is forcing you to keep up with. But rather, the bounty of information found in them, whenever you get to them, is invaluable. Don't be mad that you have a lot of emails, be thankful that there are so many people out there, just like you, who want to successfully serve patrons leisure reading needs.
Look beyond the number of emails and see the content. It was inspiriring to see so many people share their passion for Readers' Advisory, and I gathered a few new ideas from the conversation. Check it out and you might too.
Click here for past Monday Discussions.
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